England's Tour of Bangladesh Postponed Until Further Notice

Published - 03 Aug 2021, 12:58 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 05:49 PM

Photo Credit: (Sky Sports)

England’s tour of Bangladesh has been postponed indefinitely. The team was set to embark on a tour to the Asian country in September and October. However, it has now been put on the back burner. Although the reason is yet to be revealed, COVID-19 complications are likely to be the cause.

This could come as a boon to the IPL franchises. Earlier, England and Wales Cricket Board’s director, Ashley Giles, had ruled out the possibility of the English players coming back to the rescheduled IPL 2021. Now that the tour will not be going ahead as planned, England cricketers might come to play the IPL in UAE. This will also serve as valuable practice for them considering the 2021 T20 World cup will be held in UAE itself.

“We have a full schedule. If we go from the end of the fifth Test in September, we are set to leave for Bangladesh on September 19 or 20. We have a full schedule right through including Pakistan and wherever the T20 World Cup is. We are going to have to give some of these guys a break at some point. But the intention of giving guys a break for, say, Bangladesh, wouldn’t be for them to go and play cricket elsewhere,” Giles had stated.

England’s tour of Bangladesh could be held towards the end of 2022

England’s 5-match Test series against India, which starts from August 4, will conclude on September 14. Within a week, the team was supposed to fly out to Bangladesh. The tour would have started in October but for now, it has been indefinitely postponed.

Currently, the IPL is scheduled to start on September 19 and end on October 15. Just two days later, the qualifiers for the T20 World Cup will start in Oman. England also plays Pakistan in two T20I’s on October 14 and 15. Both PCB and ECB are confident about the tour going as planned.

Zimbabwe, Bangladesh — Image Credits: Twitter

This means England’s tour of Bangladesh tour is infeasible considering the fact that the players will not have any rest. As a result, the two boards involved have given the green light to hold the aforementioned series towards the end of 2022 or early 2023. It comes with complications, however, since England are yet to complete their series against South Africa that was postponed due to covid-19 outbreak in bio-bubbles.

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IPL 2021